Lisbon

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This is a short story about a couple of embarrassing incidents that lead me to choose my transportation more wisely.

Whenever possible I use my bike to get where I’m going. When I lived in Lisbon I didn’t have a car. There were plenty of taxis and public transportation, but I still used my bike whenever possible. I was mixing and recording a series of concerts with the band O’Que Strada that required me to carry a considerable amount of equipment from my apartment near Santa Apolonia in Lisbon to the Incrível Club in Almada (see map above). I needed to cycle a couple of miles to the ferry and then another mile up to the theatre. This was before I discovered the panier technology so I was carrying a large backpack filled with heavy equipment, plus a camera bag on top. I only made it about a block from my apartment when something startled me. I hit my brakes and flew over the handle bars landing face-first on the pavement. As I laid their in shock for a few seconds I felt my teeth with my tongue and though, “Oh shit, I just knocked out all of my teeth.”

I went strait to the dentist. Luckily, the damage was minor. Two teeth had been pushed down. After a couple of weeks the gums pulled them back up part-way. One was fine and the dentist just chopped off the bottom to put it back in alignment with the others. The other was disconnected from the roots, but was salvaged through endodontic therapy of the root canal.

God I wish I had taken a taxi that day. There are two things I do now that make me feel much safer caring a load on a bike. One is that I have an internal hub so my chain can’t fall off. The second is that I use pannier bags instead of a backpack to keep the weight lower and my bike more stable.

The second story is pretty simple, but again I was carrying too much weight in the wrong way. On my way to record a voice over for the play FightingMac! I twisted my ankle running down the stairs to catch a BART train while carrying two heavy cases of rack gear. It was my first work with this company so I didn’t want to be late, but as I limped around for the next couple of weeks I felt so stupid. Why didn’t I just go slowly and wait for another train? Why didn’t I just drive or take a taxi?

I love cycling and I love public transportation, but you’ve gotta do it smart (now tattooed on my forearm). You can get trailers for bikes. You can get carts for carrying equipment. And paying for expensive parking is always better than broken bodies.

I lived in some pretty crazy apartments in Lisbon, Portugal from 2003 to 2008. The crazy being a combination of culture shock and general degradation of the older buildings in Lisbon. Here are some highlights.

Note: While Americans tend to be more specific when they refer to their form of housing, whether it be a room, an apartment, a condo, or a house, the Portuguese generally refer to them all as casa (home).

See my head?

Home 1

While living in a hostel for the first two weeks after my arrival in Lisbon I made a lot of embarrassing calls to non-english speaking landlords. After my Portuguese classes started at the university I discovered that they had a directory of student housing available and I rented my first room for €450 from a nice, slightly crazy part-time model law student.

Nothing really crazy happened here, except for when I got depressed for a whole week and couldn’t get out of bed. Thank god for television. The most difficult thing about moving that I always forget about is my local social support network (aka friends). Oh, I should also mention the time I walked into the neighborhood market and accidentally asked for penises (pilas) instead of batteries (pilhas).

Home 2

Next I moved in with my girlfriend for a couple of months. There was a churrasqueira right across the street. Wow, that thing smelled bad.

Home 3

Soon afterwards we moved in with a Portuguese-German capoeira-dancing couple. The street we lived on wasn’t a street, nor was the next one it intersected with. It’s a little hard to explain for those who have never seen it, but the old neighborhoods of Lisbon have plenty of addresses that exist on public stairs winding up through the city, branching off into hidden sidewalks. We lived in one of these neighborhoods called Bica.

It smelled from the dog shit everywhere, but it had a great view of the Tejo river and a weird abandoned backyard across the wall with chickens and cats.

Home 4

Around the corner and down the stairs about 50 feet away I moved in with a friend who had recently acquired hot water for the first time. There was no door on the bathroom and I could hear everything my housemate did, but my share of the rent was only €125! In the photo above I cranked up the shadows to reveal more detail. There was an old barber across the stairs who charged €5 and had some 1980s pornographic calendars on the wall. The best thing about these last two houses was that they were a block away from the biggest open market in Lisbon where I could get a pound of fresh olives for €3!

The weirdest thing that ever happened was when my housemate lost a tooth and didn’t get it fixed for days. Or was it when the other housemate starting doing drug deals in the living room maybe?

Home 5

View of the Tejo river

This was the best and last place I lived in Lisbon. Half of the reason it was great was because my housemate and friend Rafa was producing records. There were three bedrooms so we had a pretty respectable home studio setup. The other half was that it was big, cheap, and had a great view of the river, the train station, and people standing in line at popular Lux dance club at night. There was a scary abandoned apartment on our floor where the ceiling had caved in and the Brazilian neighbors seemed to be holding some kind of seances, but here is the story I really wanted to tell you:

For the first couple of months that we lived there we had free electricity and free water. That is, we never received any bills and no one every came to inspect the equipment, until one day. I heard someone coming up the stairs so I peeped out of the peep-hole and watched a water-company rep turn some valves in our hallway. Then he left and the water was off. Huh, that’s simple, I thought as I inspected the valves. All I need is a wrench. My girlfriend and Rafa cautioned me against it, but I was determined to steal water, so I turned the valve ever so slightly. It gave so I assumed I was doing the right thing and kept turning.

Before I knew it the valve shot out, water was spraying down the stairs, and my imminent extradition from the country flashed before my eyes. I was so scared. Rafa came to the door and said, “Nathan what have you done?” I looked around wildly trying to think of something. Then, at the base of the stairs I saw the valve that had shot off. I grabbed it and shooved it back into the pipe. Luckily, it held and I ran back into the apartment to hide. Turns out the screw was threaded in reverse. Whoops.

I’m still not really sure how I got out of this. I called the landlord to tell him that the wall was leaking so he called a plumber who just came and fixed it. No questions asked. Later I had to make several trips to the office of the water company to get our service back. Apparently no one had paid the bill in 10 years and they held me responsible. I said, “I’ve only been living there 2 months. How could I have used that much water in two months?” To that the water rep said, “I don’t know, maybe you have been filling up a swimming pool every day.” Awesome.

Now about the electricity. Should I tell you the details, or just let you generate some mental images of Rafa, standing on a stool, replacing the hand-made jumper to bypass the main fuse?

WHEN I WAS PORTUGUESE

Back Stage At The National Theatre

Nathan Lively transports us to behind the curtain at the National Theatre of Portugal, where we witness the inner lives of five veteran actresses navigating the final days of a Broadway-style production. This audio installation offers an intimate glimpse into the theatre’s backstage energy and five individual lives. The end result is an avant-garde narrative and sound experience.

What you see onstage at the theatre is not necessarily the most entertaining part. There is another show being performed offstage by the cast and crew surrounding each performance. In this surround sound installation, Nathan Lively takes us backstage at the National Theatre Of Portugal (Teatro Dona Maria II) as a fly on the wall during the final performances of a 2005 production on the main stage. In this unique perspective of the life of a Portuguese theatre, you will hear each actor move around you as they travel from make-up to sound check to curtain call.

Sound Designer Nathan Lively lived in Lisbon 2003-2007. His first production at Teatro Dona Maria II put him in contact with six experienced actresses performing a Paula Vogel play, which won a Golden Globe for Best Production. Set in NYC in 1981, the play portrays six women struggling to hold onto values of a dying way of life. At once charismatic, arrogant, and pitiful, they tell the story of modernization on and off the stage.

WHAT: WHEN I WAS PORTUGUESE – A Sound Installation By Nathan Lively

WHEN: April 29, 2011 ~ 8pm-11pm (Come at 8pm to hear the installation in its entirety in relative quiet)

ZUGHAUS Gallery is located in a warehouse originally used by Peter Voulkos as a ceramics studio and later converted to a woodshop, artist studios, and lofts. The studios and lofts are home to artists of all kinds including painters, sculptors, musicians, photographers, and writers. ZUGHAUS has been hosting art openings the Last Friday of every month for over two years. All events are free of charge and open to the public. Visit http://zughausgallery.blogspot.com/ for more info.

I had my last shows for the year this past week with my two favorite groups Bomba Suicida and O’QueStrada. First was with Tânia Carvalho at Lux. I was excited to test out their new Void sound system. The Airmotion speakers they installed are really beautiful. The show went well, but in the end I felt like the weird room anomalies made it difficult to accertain the quality of the speakers themselves.

The second concert was with O’QueStrada in a big square in the middle of Lisbon called Terreiros do Paço. For the last month the city has been closing traffic in this area and having concerts in the afternoon on Sundays. The guys from O’QueStrada aren’t really accustomed to this kind of outdoor show on a high stage, but it went great and I was really happy to have it as my last show of the year. Probably the most satisfying moment was being able to really project Pablo’s voice on one of their new songs and hear it slap back from the buildings around. The sunset made a nice backdrop.
Happy New Year!

…8 June 07…
Made it back from Macau with no bird flu! I did get sick for a while upon return, but just strep throat. Both shows with O’QueStrada at the theater Dom João V went well and everyone had fun experimenting local cuisine. Oh, and it was HOT. Weather just like Houston, Texas.
I’ve recently become more interested in location recording so anyone with a project in mind, please contact me.

…7 April 07…
Made it through a great month of recording and FOH for O’QueStrada at the Incrível Clube in Almada. I haven’t had time to go through all of the dates, but there should be some really nice performances captured. A week from now we are heading off to Macau and I can’t find anywhere to buy Patacas (local currency). Casinos, opium, and designer knock-offs, hurray!

…31 Mar. 07…
I just got back from a trip to the US. As far as seeing friends and family goes, it was one of the most successful trips ever! SXSW was going on at the same time, but I only went out a couple of nights. I was excited to see my friend Jason’s band doing really well. I didn’t get to check out some studios I was looking forward to seeing, but I did get some new equipment: two new mics, a mic pre, a cool looking keyboard, and a case for my video camera. Which reminds me, now that I have a camera I can add video to the serviço page. Now I’m back in Lisbon, finishing the Misturapura album and preparing for a month of O’QueStrada concerts. Hurray!

…22 Jan. 07…
I’m starting a band and looking for a drummer, a cello player, and a singer (female). If you know of anyone interested, please send them to my site!

…4 Dec. 06…
I’m doing sound for a play that just opened at Teatro Dona Maria II called Ana & Hanna. Finally I get to play something loud! It has a lot of pop music, geared towards teenagers.

…4 Nov. 06…
I mastered my first cassette! The Loosers gave me various tracks they had recorded in their practice space and I juiced it up my roomate’s Revox tape machine. See NotNotFun and scroll down to Loosers.

…18 Sept. 06…
The Tasca Móvel installation in Porto went great, asside from the rain and some technical problems. Unfortunately, no one took a picture of my sweet suit. Currently there aren’t any plans for the next instalation, but I hope to do it again soon.

…7 Sept. 06…
We’ve been working on the next presentation of the Tasca Móvel. We will be adding a bar and new lamps and they look great! See it in Porto in front of the Rivoli on the 14th and 15th of this month.

…IT BEGINS!…
Oh Dear Lord!
Another Egosite!
It’s all about me and the cool projects I work on. For example, I am doing sound for the group O’queStrada in Faro (Portugal) on the 2nd of September, so I have a page for them with pictures and recordings I’ve done. See present.
…
Thanks to my dad for the help with the site and everyone else who helped me revise it.
Hurray!